1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a terminal device, and an image processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer can be directly connected to a mobile terminal apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a mobile terminal) such as a digital camera, a mobile telephone a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a mobile personal computer (PC) to print an image and data in these mobile terminals.
Normally, when an image processing apparatus is connected to a mobile terminal, an operation screen for transferring data is displayed on a display device of the image processing apparatus. Files of the mobile terminal are listed on the display device of the image processing apparatus, an operation target is selected on the display, and an actual operation such as printing is specified.
When a mobile terminal, such as a notebook PC and a tablet PC, is equipped with a display device of relatively high resolution, the process contents of the image processing apparatus can be displayed and specified on the display device of the mobile terminal when an image processing apparatus communicates with the mobile terminal. Furthermore, a folder of the image processing apparatus can be displayed, a file of the mobile terminal can be dragged and dropped onto the folder, the file transmitted to the image processing apparatus, and the process contents can be specified on the display device of the image processing apparatus.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-242781, a virtual folder called a “hot folder” is displayed, and a file to be printed is dragged and dropped onto the folder, thereby printing data.
Also according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-272715, a file is dragged and dropped onto a window having a specific function, thereby specifying a transfer of a file to a remote destination.
In the above-mentioned process specifying operation between the image processing apparatus and the mobile terminal, a file of the mobile terminal is displayed on the display device of the image processing apparatus. Generally, the method of displaying a file on an image processing apparatus is different from the method of a mobile terminal in many cases, and a user unfamiliar with operations of an image processing apparatus often takes a long time to operate the apparatus.
In addition, when the display device of a mobile terminal displays a symbol, such as a hot folder, of a process of an image processing apparatus, the mobile terminal, such as a PDA, having a relatively narrow display area requires further narrowing another display area for display of a folder, thereby incurring poor operability.
It is often technically difficult for a mobile terminal having no window system to display a hot folder, thereby failing in adopting the above-mentioned method.
Furthermore, in transferring data using a hot folder, it is necessary to transfer data to an image processing apparatus by dragging and dropping the data onto the hot folder when the data is compressed between equipment units, and then to transfer the data to a target processing function.